1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus connected to a plurality of image forming apparatuses and a method for controlling thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional device such as a printer is connected to a network and used from a client personal computer (PC) via a network. When using the device, the client PC firstly needs to discover the device in the network and install driver software for using the discovered device.
Some possible technologies for searching a device in the network include a technology for transmitting a search request packet via a broadcast or a multicast. The broadcast or the multicast is a method for transmitting data to a plurality of apparatuses existing in the network.
According to the technologies, the client PC transmits the search request packet via the broadcast or the multicast and a device receiving the search request packet transmits the search response packet to the client PC so that the client PC can search the device.
Further, the networks are mutually connected by a connection device such as a router so that a large scale of network can be established. Since the broadcast and the multicast have influence on traffic in the whole network, the router is generally set not to allow the broadcast and the multicast to pass therethrough.
The network separated via the router is referred to as a subnetwork. The broadcast and the multicast are generally used within the subnetwork. In this circumstance, when a technology for searching the network device using the broadcast or the multicast is used, the search request packet transmitted by the client PC cannot pass through the router. Therefore, in the network circumstance where a plurality of subnetworks is connected via the router, the client PC could not discover the device existing in a different subnetwork.
Thus, a search system where a search can be performed even between the device and the client PC that exist in the different subnetworks has been considered. As one example, a server (discovery proxy (DP)) for searching is provided in the network. According to the technology, the search request message including a search condition is transmitted from the client PC to the DP. Instead of the client PC, the DP receiving the search request message searches for the device (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-216107).
Address information of the device is registered in the DP as attribute information of the device in the network.
The address information includes, for example, an Internet protocol (IP) address and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). The address information can be a link local address. The link local address is an effective address only within a subnetwork, and cannot be used over the router. The IPv4 link local address is defined by the RFC 3927 and uses a range of 169. 254.0.0/16 as the address. Further, the IPv6 link local address is defined by an RFC 3306 or an RFC 4489 and uses a range of FE80::/10 as the address.
According to the conventional technology, when the search request is transmitted from the client PC to the DP, the DP transmits a response with respect to all devices satisfying the search condition. More specifically, the DP transmits the response also with respect to the above link local address, if the device satisfies the search condition. When the client PC that has transmitted the search request exists in the subnetwork different from the device corresponding to the link local address included in the search result, the search result becomes useless, since the client PC cannot access the link local address.
As described above, according to the conventional technology, for example, when the search result of the device search is acquired from the server, the search result includes the device which the information processing apparatus transmitting the search request cannot access. In other words, the information processing apparatus acquires useless information from the server.